News in brief

Revised EU legislation capping mobile-phone roaming charges came into force yesterday (1 July). The legislation limits the cost of sending a text message from abroad at €0.11 and introduces a wholesale cap on data roaming charges of €1 per megabyte downloaded.

New commissioners

The Polish government on Friday (26 June) nominated Pawel Samecki, a member of the board of the National Bank of Poland, to replace Danuta Hübner, the European commissioner for regional policy, who has been elected to the European Parliament. The Lithuanian government nominated Algirdas Šemeta, currently finance minister, to replace Dalia Grybauskaite, the European budget commissioner, who was elected president of Lithuania.

Eurosceptic group

The UK Independence Party announced yesterday that it had succeeded in forming a new political group in the European Parliament, with 30 members drawn from eight member states. The group, which will be called Europe of Freedom and Democracy, will replace the Eurosceptic Independence/Democracy group.

Smoking bans

The Commission has called on member states to increase efforts to ban smoking in public places. Only ten countries have anti-smoking laws that the Commission considers sufficient. A partial ban on smoking in indoor public spaces took effect in Greece yesterday.